2018 Who Decides? The Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States

In an environment in which anti-choice legislators and organizations feel emboldened to eliminate abortion and contraception seemingly by any means necessary, pro-active, pro-choice policy is often our strongest line of defense. Not only do these policies help protect every woman‘s right to make reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing safe, legal abortion, they allow state governments to showcase their interest in supporting the women and families in their state by blocking federal anti-choice overreach.

Pro-choice measures enacted during 2017 cover wide-ranging topics, from measures to improve contraceptive access, including requirements that health-insurance plans cover 12 months of contraception at once, to policies that promote healthy childbearing, to measures that protect pregnant women in the workplace. Policymakers know what the public majority already knows: that protecting a woman‘s right to comprehensive reproductive healthcare is the right thing to do and makes for a healthier state with a stronger economy.